North Korean leader Kim Jong-Un guided the military's latest rocket-firing drill, state media said Sunday, confirming the missile launch which was conducted in defiance of U.N. censure.   

Saturday's launch was the first since the U.N. Security Council on July 17 officially condemned Pyongyang for its recent series of ballistic missile tests, in violation of U.N. resolutions.

North Korea fired a short-range missile into the sea on Saturday, the 15th time it has launched rockets this year, the South's Yonhap news agency reported.

South Korea's Joint Chiefs of Staff in a statement said the North "fired a short-range missile presumed to be a Scud-type one into the East Sea" (Sea of Japan) at 09:40 pm (12:40 GMT).

South Korea on Thursday confirmed its first case of foot-and-mouth in more than three years, and just two months after the country was declared free of the disease.

The Agriculture Ministry said in a statement that the case had been confirmed in a pig farm in Uiseong in the eastern province of North Gyeongsang.

North Korea's top military body Monday defended its recent missile tests as a legitimate exercise in self-defence, and said South Korean and U.S. charges of provocation were malicious and hypocritical.

North Korea hit back at the U.N. Security Council Saturday over its recent censure of Pyongyang for launching several rounds of short-range ballistic missiles.

In a statement carried on North Korean official media the foreign ministry described the U.N. criticism as "absolutely intolerable" and defended the missile launches as a response to "madcap war manoevres" by the United States.

The U.N. Security Council on Thursday condemned North Korea for recently launching several rounds of short-range ballistic missiles.

"The members of the Security Council condemn these launches as violations of Security Council resolutions," said Eugene Richard Gasana, the Rwandan chair of the 15-member council. 

South Korea and the United States on Wednesday launched a five-day joint naval drill in the face of angry North Korean protests and warnings backed by missile tests.

Two separate drills began simultaneously in the East Sea (Sea of Japan) and off the southern port of Mokpo, South Korean military officials said.

A South Korean conscript who went on a deadly shooting rampage last month was humiliated by fellow soldiers who mocked him and drew cartoons depicting him as SpongeBob SquarePants, military officials said Tuesday.

The 22-year-old sergeant surnamed Lim opened fire on members of his own unit at a guard post near the tense border with North Korea on June 21, killing five and wounding seven. 

South Korea on Tuesday warned North korea it was playing a dangerous game with a series of missile, rocket and artillery tests that appear to be inching ever closer to their joint border.

In the latest incident on Monday, the North fired 100 shells into the sea from multiple rocket launchers in a live-fire drill close to the eastern maritime boundary.

U.S. President Barack Obama told his Chinese counterpart Xi Jinping on Monday he was determined to constructively manage growing differences between their two nations, at a time of high tensions in the Pacific region.

In a telephone call, Obama and Xi also discussed the international effort to reach a deal on Iran's nuclear program in Vienna and the need to ensure North Korea complies with demands for it to dismantle its nuclear program, the White House said in a statement.